John Elwes has been around in musical circles literally for
ages, making his recording debut as boy soprano soloist in 1960
at the age of 14 in the world premiere recording of Benjamin
Britten’s Five Canticles by the side of Peter Pears
and with the composer conducting. Since then he has participated
in more than one hundred recordings. As recently as 2008 he
was Grammy-nominated for a recording of Mahler’s Das Lied
von der Erde in Arnold Schönberg’s reduction of the orchestral
score. In other words he doesn’t fight shy of challenges off
the beaten track. Schubert’s Winterreise is hardly
off the beaten track but very much on it,
but Elwes’s reading of the cycle is decidedly off in
many respects.
Aged sixty when the recording was made he had kept his voice
in good shape during a long and successful career, but there
is no denying that the youthful bloom is gone. That in itself
is no obstacle to a good interpretation of Winterreise,
It is the expressivity, the depicting of emotions and the story
telling that counts. Good enunciation of the text is a prerequisite
for any Lieder singer and Elwes always sings off the
words. It is also a reading from within; he is the
lonely wanderer.

But something is missing? I can feel the unspoken question from
my readers. No, not exactly missing. I would say there is rather
too much. You feel it in the very first song Gute Nacht.
The poet is not exactly in high spirits but he isn’t totally
depressed either. Elwes’ poet is aggressive in his ferocious
attack. And this is not an isolated phenomenon - it is a concept.
It soon turns out that this is a Winterreise for those
who prefer it tense – over-tense in many places – and angry.
Even Der Lindenbaum, which initially depicts beautifully
remembrances of dreams, is tense and dark. I admit that it is
a thrilling journey, full of surprises and new insights, but
it is not a comfortable one, not even for the listener. He often
sacrifices beauty of tone for intensity and sometimes resorts
to shouting and sliding up to notes.

In a way it is like hearing Mime in Wagner’s Ring,
a character so filled with undelivered feelings, who distorts
and cajoles the words and the music with tremendous power. The
topical auction on 2 May 2012 of Munch’s painting The Scream
had me thinking that John Elwes’s rejected lover is in the same
state of mind. His is an expressionist reading and whatever
faults there may be, the reading is not insensitive
– quite the opposite. The misery in Einsamkeit, the
pain that Die Post evokes, the nightmarish depiction
of the village in Im Dorfe, the resignation before
Das Wirtshaus, the resignation in Die Nebensonnen
– there is a remarkable consistency throughout. In several ways
this reading of Winterreise moved me more than any
other version I have heard. I’m filled with respect and admiration
for such a heart-on-the-sleeve approach. I felt drawn to it
and repelled in the same breath. I know I will be returning
to this disc – for my own sake as well for demonstration purposes:
‘This is another way of interpreting these songs.’

Tempos are not exceptional in either direction. I found on the
internet a survey of a large number of recordings with total
timings. They spanned from Oscar Scherwenka’s express journey
at 60:19 to Thomas Quasthoff’s 82:33. At 68:24 John Elwes and
his admirable accompanist Kenneth Slowik are slightly faster
than the average tempo for the cycle. Kenneth Slowik, by the
way, plays a fortepiano, on loan from Lambert Orkis, but I didn’t
even notice that until I was to type the header.

Readers who are contemplating their first Winterreise
should definitely look elsewhere: Hans Hotter, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau,
Olaf Bär or, if you want a tenor, Peter Schreier, are safe buys
to start with. If you already have one or several favourite
recordings, the present disc is an interesting alternative.
It may be shocking – but also stimulating.

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